Hey Ray,
Re: somehow it removed the ATRAC compression built into the recorder, and stored raw
MP3.
Well.. no they record it via the sound card (so you loss twice: MP3 in case of MP3
file and the ATRAC)
but for my ear (which is not the best in town it's OK - specially since I listen to
music while I commute so for me it's similar if not better than FM quality. which is
fine - you know car and cluttered background noises)
I wonder what do you think about listening to MP3 via your PC speakers (the experience
I have with Voquette's recording onto an MD is quite similar).
Re: From a marketing point of view MP3 will be superb - solid state recorder, cheaply
produced, but expectation high so folk will pay for it, download small files over
whatever, instead of storing bulky Cd's.
Yes I think marketing it is good (but time will tell). However I still download
smaller files using MP3 and I like the MD format for traveling.
Re: It needs some copy protection:
I have not looked into it yet - I will update you (do you have any info regarding this
issue?)
Re: In the limited experiments I've performed, I personally am not too impressed with
MP3 as regards sound quality, but then, I am not the rest of the world. I have found
that a 22 Mb wav sound file will at 128kbs compression come down to 2 Mb in MP3, but
the sound degrading is noticeable.
I agree - but again, for me to listen to FM quality while I am on the go is more than
fine.
Re: for speech when you want the content and not the quality - e.g. technical
briefings, etc. then that is fine.
Again I agree and for me: This is a Killer App. > it save me time and it gives me a
the opportunity to listen to programs that otherwise I could not allow myself to
listen. (I tuned it once and I get it every day. I wonder how long I will use it :-)
.. I am using it now for more than a week .. and enjoy it - and frankly this was the
real reason I wrote to the group (not because of music, although as I mentioned music
is also OK). I enjoy the fact that my PC wakes up every morning at 6:00AM connect to
the Internet and record for me Cnet Radio onto my MD and disconnect from the Internet
- that's cool!
Re: I've been looking at the real-audio stuff, also, but not studied it at all. They
seem to say they have the same compression rates as MP3, but better quality (according
to them).
They provide it with their RealJukeBox - I have not compared qualities - but again for
me it sound good.
Re Atrac compression is at about 5 to 1, and its perceived quality is very good,for
most music. In fact I have heard that the recording of classical type music is better
than for raw CD, but it is not so good for more modern music with fast
moving dynamic range changes.
ATRAC as others use psychoacoustics algorithms to compress the audio. and with any
loss compression you have to losses the question is where.
Re: It would be nice to be able to store raw data on to standard md devices - e.g.
jpegs, spreadsheets, etc., but I believe the devices are not built well enough to cope
with this. If a few bits of a music track are missing, then that can be compensated
for in the decompression algorithm, and I suspect this happens a lot in normal use.
For data, however, the overheads would be higher, this is
probably why the digital md stuff is more expensive - it has to be engineered
differently.
There is Data MD - not a big success yet. lets see what will be with the new Sony
digital camera that uses MD.
Re ATRAC and Data MD
That's not the way to go - they should provide a direct access to the data and not via
the ATRAC compression - as they do with digital camera
Re: Sorry if this rambled on a bit, just thought Voquette were offering something more
than they were.
For me (and again this is my personal take): they did a great job! specially by
providing me a real application that I use on a daily basis (listen to my customized
WEB audio programs, rather than listening to music only or small talk on the radio -
for free).
Re Music I think that the ease of use of the Voquette VMM, of selecting the MP3 files
from the WEB and the fact that I can download and record it onto my MD over night
(when there is no net congestions) and I don't have to sit and wait for it is great
and its in one easy to use application. (I agree that I would prefer an all digital
recording, but even now the quality is good)
Re: what tech. info. is it you download?
I saw their "take a tour" at www.voquette.com > click "take a tour" its not very
technical but this is what they currently have there.
thy have some information in the products section.
(Thanks to you I have just found that they support also a simple tape recorder >
connect it to the PC and get the same. I will check it and I will update you on this
as well. but it sound interesting since I don't have a MD player in my car and I use a
cassette adapter to play it through my stereo and this can solve me this issues)
They also have some info in their "Help"section - not too much :-(
Best wishes,
Richard
p.s. sorry for the long reply. I bombarded Voquette with questions and I am waiting to
their answers.
please take a look at their site and tell me what you think of the cassette NetRecorder
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